William Shakespeare

William ShakespeareEarly Life

Born about April 23,1564 at Stratford-Upon-Avon; Funeral on April 23,1616

Attended Stratford Grammar School (history and Latin literature) which allowed him to hob-nob with the nobility. This taught him about how the nobles interacted.

Father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker and a town official (mayor, among other offices). He was part of the merchant class.

Married Life Married Anne Hathaway in January of 1582; he

was 18, she was 26.

First child Susan born in May of 1582.

Twins (Hamnet and Judith) born 2/2/1585. Hamnet died at 11

Retirement as a Gentleman

In 1599 applied for a coat of arms, a request that was granted. His motto: “Non Sanz Droit” means “Not without rights.”

He retired in 1610 a fairly wealthy

man to a home in Stratford.

Shakespeare’s Works

Wrote/co-wrote 38 plays between 1588-1613. There is no positive record of the first play, but most likely it was The Comedy of Errors or Titus Andronicus.

Wrote tragedies, histories, and comedies. He also wrote 154 sonnets.

Why his plays were so compelling is that he took the borrowed plot and added insight into human nature. Before him, plays often just told what happened. Shakespeare told why it happened and often showed more than one perspective.

Background for Romeo and Juliet

Borrowed plots to write his plays, for example, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, was borrowed from The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke. (1562)

Early Career

He started as an actor and in 1592 joined an acting company called Strange’s Men. Soon after theaters in London were closed because of the Black Plague. When they reopened Shakespeare became a prominent member of the Chamberlain’s Men another acting company.

The company had their own theater (The Theater) which later was rebuilt in 1599 on the Thames River and renamed The Globe.

The Theater was managed by James Burbage, whose son Richard Burbage was the most famous tragic actor of his time. Shakespeare often wrote roles around him.

Queen Elizabeth

Prior to Shakespeare’s time actors were considered rogues. In fact there was ban on them coming into London. If caught they were publicly whipped. Their status was equivalent to a prostitute. Only morality plays, sanctioned by the church were allowed.

Elizabeth changed that by allowing actors into London and by allowing theaters to be built near London, as The Globe was. She is considered a patron of the arts.

During this time England flourished. It is a time known as the Golden Age. Arts flourished, England’s influence spread as many new colonies were founded, and under Elizabeth the Spanish armada was defeated (an amazing feat).

One way the arts flourished is that acting companies came under the patronage of nobles. That is, nobles helped finance the companies. However, because of this patronage plays were often skewed to reflect well on those in power and poorly on those whose power was usurped.

Elizabethan Theatre

Acting companies consisted of a group of men who owned and operated the theater or even just a group of men who were hired to perform. It was truly a company that depended on revenue to survive. They could perform in their own theater, or they could be hired to perform in the homes of the nobility.

In 1603 Elizabeth I died and James I became king, Shakespeare’s acting company became “The King’s Company” under King James’ patronage.

In acting companies, the writer acted, the leading man directed, everyone built sets and costumes and theprompter was the bookkeeper.

The theater was a large round wooden structure with tiers of seats running around its walls.

In the center and jutting out

from one wall was its stage which was a ¾ circular stage. In front and around the stage was a pit in whichthe poorer people sat. They were called groundlings because they stood directly on the ground. They paid a penny. Richer patrons paidtwo pence and sat in the galleries.

3000 people could pack into the globe.

In 1613, a cannon fired during a performance caused the theater to be destroyed. It was rebuilt a year later, but it was destroyed within 30 years because the Puritans found any public performance inappropriate. In 1997 the Globe was finally rebuilt by an American expatriate, Sam Wanamaker

Costumes Besides fights scenes, funny antics and

great stories, costumes were another thing that brought in audiences were the fabulous costumes.

These were often castoff clothes of wealthy patrons. These wererichly embroidered and were made of expensivefabrics.

The Audience Because a theater depended on tickets to survive and nobles did not want to associate with the poor, they were seated in specific locations and even used different entrances. The pit where the groundlings were was open to the air. The boxes in which the nobles sat were covered and raised off the floor. These were the galleries. For an extra penny, one could rent a cushion.

Performances started at 2:00 pm (to use available light) and ran every day except Sunday.

Because of the poor hygiene in London at the time, to keep the smell of the people crammed in the pit bearable, the theater routinely put aromatic bay leaves on the floor. From this practice came the saying “Bring on the bay leaves” which implied the show stank.

Because of social restrictions, all actors were male. They often were apprenticed to the theater company between the ages of 11-14. They started out playing small parts, moved to more important, generally male parts and as they aged played older roles.

This may sound unfair to modern people, but the only women associated with the theatre at that time were prostitutes and thieves. Normal women would not have been associated with the theatre or would have wanted to.

Since revenues meant success Shakespeare and other writers needed to keep everyone happy, from the noble to the pauper. Therefore, Shakespeare’s plays had a lot of slapstick style humor to keep the masses happy. Additionally, they were motivated to keep the groundlings happy because the groundlings were not above throwing rotten food at a the stage during a poor performance.

Basically low-brow humor, pratfalls, silly drunken brawls) were for the common folk, and high brow humor (sophisticated language, in-jokes) was for the nobles.

An additional element that made Shakespeare’s plays so commercially successful was the amount of adventure on the stage. Many stage fights and lots of action brought the audience back.

Shakespeare used speech to differentiate among types of characters. High class characters (like princes) would speak in verse, that is, rhyme and meter. While low class characters spoke using the language of the day.

Shakespeare also used verse in the form of a couplet to represent the end of a scene (since there were no curtains or lights to dim) and also to symbolically represent love.

Most of Shakespeare’s plays, like The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, are written in a kind of rhythm called iambic pentameter. That is 5 feet or beats per line. One character might stop speaking in a middle of the line and another pick up the same line.